Placing the Blood on the Doorposts and Lintel of the House

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:7

"And they shall take of the blood" (Exodus 12:7): that there be enough blood for a taking. "Of the blood": from the blood of the lifeblood, and not from the blood of the flesh, nor from the blood of the hide, nor from the blood that drains out at the end. "You shall put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel" (Exodus 12:7). One might think he places it on the lintel and doorposts of the windows; the verse says "on the houses." On the lintel and doorposts of the houses he places it, and he does not place it on the lintel and doorposts of the windows. One might think ten houses one inside another, with the company eating in the innermost one, that he must place blood on all of them; the verse says "on the houses in which they eat it." From where do you say that a company eating in one house with five doorways must place blood on every single lintel and every single doorpost? The verse says "they shall put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel": blood on every lintel and blood on every doorpost. From where do you say that five companies eating in one house with five doorways must each place from its own blood on every lintel and from its own blood on every doorpost? The verse says "on the two doorposts and on the lintel": from every quantity of blood on the lintel and from every quantity of blood on the doorpost. "On the houses in which they eat it" (Exodus 12:7). Since it says "in one house it shall be eaten" (Exodus 12:46), this teaches that the Passover is eaten only in one house. From where that it may also be eaten in two places? The verse says "on the houses in which they eat it." You have thus learned that the Passover of Egypt was eaten in two places. But the eater himself eats only in one place. "They shall eat it" (Exodus 12:7): that they shall not eat ordinary meat with it, and shall not eat a festival offering with it. "In them": Scripture speaks of the body of the Passover itself.

Themes